Structural toy



H. W. GRAVES.

STRUCTURAL TOY.

APPLICATION FILED MAR- 9. I92I.

Patented Oct. 24, 1922.

lll

HENRYW. GRAVES, 01E GHJEGAGU, ILLINOIS.

s'rnucrunnn ron.

Application filed. March 9, 1921. SeriaI No. lfiLOlt).

To (ZZZ whom it mag concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY Graves, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Structural Toy; and l dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and "use the same.

My invention relates to structural toys or toy constructionblocks of the general type in which rods or strips are connected to each other for various arrangements. For this purpose it has long been customary to employ thin metal strips equipped with numer ous perforations and to fasten such strips to one another by means of bolts, thereby requiring considerable time in threading the bolt parts on each otherwhen assembling use of tools for this purpose. a l

My invention aims to provide structural toy elements so arranged that they can readily be assembled in an endlessvariety of arrangements with ordinary spring cotters without requiring the use oftools either for connecting or disconnecting the parts. It also aims to provide connecting means which will readily permit the use ofsticks of wood insteadof the metal strips, thereby employing elements which are more pleasing to the touch and Which are not apt to cut the hands of the children playing with the same. Furthermore, my invention aims to provide simple and cheaply constructed conall hector-s adapted to be used interchangeably with sticks of varying lengths and so ar ranged as to aflord unusuallyrigid con nections between the adjoiningends of two or more sticks. For thislatter purpose my invention aims to provide connectors arranged for holding sticks in predetermined angular relation to eachother, aims to provide these in ,an exceedingly, simple and cheaply manufactured form, and aims to allow for permitting an adjusting of the relative angularity of the strips connected by such connectors without requiring the use of tools for making such adjustments. Still further and more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and accompanying drawings, in

from the which-- j Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the frame of a bridge constructed with sticks and connectors embodying my invention. a Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of same. j

Fig. 3 an enlarged and vertical transverse section taken along the correspond ingly numbered lines of Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is a similarly enlarged vertical and longitudinal section taken along the correspondingly numberedline inl ig. 4i and showing only the parts immediately adjacent to the said line. a

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the perforated blank from which the connecting members shown in Figs. 1 to 41- inclusive were formed.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the shortened form of connector shown in side elevation in Fig. 4. j j a Fig. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the sticks of the first two figures.

In accomplishing the purposes of my inthe vention after the manner. of the illustrated embodiment, I employ sticks of various lengths but of a uniform rectangular cross section, each of these sticks being provided near each end. thereof with a pair of trans verse bores spaced by a given uniform distance from the end of the stick, and the bores comprising each pair being spaced from each other by a distance which is also uniform for. all of the sticks. Then I provide connectors or connecting members made of sheet metal and each having a plurality of perforations corresponding substantially in size to the said bores in the sticks. These perforatlons are deslrably arranged on the connectors 111 a predetermined relation so that they will readily lend themselves to desiralole angular relations betweenthe connected strips and also to the securing of rigidity inlthe resulting connections. For this purpose, I desirably provide sheet metal connectors in two types as shown in Figsb and 6, namely in a type formed from a complete circular blank andin one formed from the same circular blank but having a considerable portion sheared off one edge. a

To make the firstof these two types of blanks I take a sheet metal disk 1 as shown in and provide the same with a series of perforations spaced by a uniform distance from two center points A and B which are equidistant from the center of the disk in a direction at right angles to the line C on which the disk is to be bent. This bending line C extends through the point A in Fig. 5, the latter being spaced from the point B by a distance corresponding to one half of the standard width of the sticks. The perforations which are thus centered around the points A and B respectively desirably include three perforations 9., 3 and 4 equidistant'from the point A'and respectively loated ai lin s ad a in from h p in A at angles of 45, Q O and 135 degrees to the line C; also, three perforations 5, 6 and 7 equidistant from the point B and respectively on lines" 415, 90 and 135 degrees to a line D which eiitends through the point B parallel to the center line C. Moreover, thelast named portion QfftllG connector blanlg nam ely the lower part of the as shown in Fig. 5., has a pair of auxiliary perforations 8 spaced by the aforesaid standard distance frointhe center B and located along the line D and lil so has another pairot perforations 9 on this same D butnearer' to the center B by a distance corresponding to the standard spacing E (of Fig. 7) between the holes in each end of one the sticks." So also, this sameportion'ot the blank has an auxiliary'perforation 16 located on the transverse line connecting the centers AL and B, but nearer te t-he center than the perforation 6 by adistance corresponding to the a Rmi g Having thus equipped the sheet metal connector blanks withperforations in'uniform aran .ge ent on th ese blanks and all corresponding in bo refivith those in the sticks, I can reaclily connect. one end of any stick to such a metal connector by simply bringing a bore of a stick into alinement withfa perforation in connector and then iting a'tastening member through such e bo es 'Fo t iislatte Pu p e I sirably employ anbrdinary spring cotter made out or a light wire, such as the cotter 11 ofthe'drawingsi l also desirably include among the elements o t-my construction to) sticksfol lengths adaptedto cooperate with the above described connectors in affording equilateral right-angled triangled consj'tructionsfthus permitting one to utilize the aforesaid angular arrangement of the perforations in each part ofthe connector tor insuring a firm connection between the assembled parts.

Where adjacent sticks are disposed in the same plane and connected at 4;?) degree angles to one another, it will be obyious from Figs. 1 and '2 that theresulting triangular construction will readily afford the desi'red'rigidity. For constructions involving right. angles, the same metal connector also affords this rigidty by'two other featiires one of these being the spacing of the bending line C from the line D which e tends through the axis of the four perlorations 8 and 9. As this spacing is sub stantially equal to one-half the standard width of the sticks, any stick extending parallel to the bending line and vihstcned to one web of the connector by one or two cotters, such as the stick 12 fastened to the web 13 in Fig. 3, will have one edge bearing against the other web 14- of the connector formed by bending the blank o'l" Fig. 5 at right angles along the line (c. Gonsequently the edge-wise almttin; of

the stick 12 against the web llwill prevent this stick from rock ng about the connector which secures it to the web 13 thereby insuring rigidit even it only a single cotter is used at this end of the slick 12. For sticks extending at right angles to the bending line of: the connectou i dosirably do not depend on an mlgewisc abut ting of a stick against a web of the conncw tor, but einploy two cotter pins counonling a single end of the stick to the connwrh'nr us for example by utilizing both the bores T and (l in the connector tol'n'icd from the blank of Fig. a.

lit will be obvious from the above that by thus standardizing the diameters and perforations of the sticks while also furnishing the latter in varying lengths, and by slz1ndardizing the arrangement of the perl'orations in the metal connectors, 1 can readily employ such construction elements interchangeably tor building an endless variotv of framed or skeleton construclions. Floreover, by employing sheet metal of Hln'll a gage as to permit oft its being bent with the fingers, I can readily vary the :ura'ularit lbtween the planes of the webs ol each connector so that i need not be limited to the right-angled term oi? the same as dlOWll in 3 but can also employ the same connectors with their webs relatively oblique to each other, as for example after the manner of 1-.

Moreover. while I have illustrated and described my invention as comprising certain desirable slick and connector arrange ments, 1 do not wish to be limited, to the details of the construction and arrangement thus disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims. For cx ample, the metal connectors formed from the complete disks of Fig. 5 would project too far beyond the adjacent sticks in many structures to presentthe desired sightlv appearance. I may therefore shear oil the lower portion of the blank of Fig. 5 tor many of these blanks along the line ll of that figure; so that the resulting connector would appear substantially as shown in. periaeaara jacent stick as shown at the middle of Fig. 2.

l claim as my invention:

1. In a structural toy, the combination with transversely perforated sticks, of an angle plate/having each Web equipped with perforations disposed in substantially a semicircle about a oint near the juncture of the webs, and fastening elements each adapted to extend interchangeablyvthrough alined perforations in the angle plate and in one of the sticks, the angle plate being digitally bendable to vary the angle between the plane of itswebs. v 2. In a structural toy, the combination with transversely perforated sticks of uniform width, of an angle plate having each web equipped with perforations, and fastening elements each adapted to extend interchangeably through alined perforations in the angle plate and in one of the sticks;

certain of the. perforations in the angle plate being spaced from the bend therein by substantially half the width of the said sticks.

3. ln a structural toy, the combination with transversely perforated sticks of uniform width, of an angle plate having each web equipped with perforations disposed in substantially semicircular arrangement, and fastening elements each adapted to extend interchangeably through alined perfora' tions in the angle'plate and in one of the sticks, the semicircular arrangement of the perforations in one web of the angle plate having its center substantially at the bend of the said plate. 7

4. In a structural toy, the combination with transversely perforated sticks of uniform width, of an angle plate having each web equipped with perforations disposed in substantially semicircular arrangement, and

fastening elements each adapted to extend interchangeably through alined perforations in the angle plate and in one of the sticks, the semicircular arrangement of the perforations in one web ofthe angle plate having its center substantially at the bend of the said plate, and the semicircular arrangement of the perforations in the-other web being centered at a distance from the said bend corresponding to half the width of the strips.

5; In a structural toy, the combination with transversely perforated sticks, of an angle plate having each web equipped with perforations and having the perforations in one web disposed in substantially semicircular arrangement centering about a point adjacent to the bend of the plate, certain of the perforations in the last named web bein disposed respectively on lines radiating from the said centering points at angles of 45 and 90 degrees with the line of l the said bend.

6. Toy construction blocks comprising sticks of similar cross-sections each having a pair of spaced perforations near each end thereof, sheet metal angle plates having each web thereof equipped with perforations corresponding in diameter to those in 111 the sticks, and fastenlng members each adapted to extend through alined perfora tions in a stick and in a web of an angle plate, each angle plate having perforations in one web spaced from the bend of the plate by substantially half the standard width of the sticks and having among the perforations in its other web a pair of perforations spaced from each other transversely of the aforesaid web oy a distance corresponding to the spacing between the perforations in an end of one of the sticks.

Signed at Chicago, March 4th, 1921.

. HENRY W. GRAVES. 

